Systems and methods for analyzing restaurant operations

ABSTRACT

Some embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for deploying employees to roles in a restaurant. For example, some embodiments are directed to basing employee deployment decisions at least in part on a combination of quantitative data and qualitative assessments of performance by various employees in various roles. Qualitative assessments may, for example, relate to an employee&#39;s success in promoting customer satisfaction, or to the accuracy of quantitative data relating to a task or function.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of commonly assigned, co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/181,188, filed Nov. 5, 2018, entitledSYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ANALYZING RESTAURANT OPERATIONS, which is acontinuation of commonly assigned, co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 16/011,765, filed Jun. 19, 2018, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODSFOR ANALYZING RESTAURANT OPERATIONS, which is a continuation of commonlyassigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/194,949, filed Jun. 28,2016, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ANALYZING RESTAURANT OPERATIONS,now U.S. patent Ser. No. 10/019,686, which is a continuation-in-part ofcommonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/059,333, filedMar. 3, 2016, entitled TECHNIQUES FOR ANALYZING OPERATIONS OF ONE ORMORE RESTAURANTS, which is a continuation of commonly assigned U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/980,109, filed Dec. 28, 2015, entitledTECHNIQUES FOR ANALYZING OPERATIONS OF ONE OR MORE RESTAURANTS, now U.S.Pat. No. 9,336,830, which is a continuation of commonly assigned U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/032,701, filed Sep. 20, 2013, entitledTECHNIQUES FOR ANALYZING OPERATIONS OF ONE OR MORE RESTAURANTS, now U.S.Pat. No. 9,257,150. The entirety of each of the foregoing documents isincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Many restaurants, retail establishments, and other commercialenterprises establish labor budgets as a percentage of revenue. Forexample, a restaurant may establish a labor budget for a particular dayas 25% of its expected sales that day, so that if the restaurant isexpected to earn $10,000 in sales, its labor budget for that day is$2,500. The way that this labor budget is “spent” may, for example, beinfluenced by characteristics of the restaurant. For example, arestaurant with a drive-through window may dedicate an employee toassisting drive-up customers throughout the day, while a restaurantwithout a drive-through window may not. Other roles for restaurantemployees may include, but are not limited to, cashier roles, foodpreparation (“production line”) roles, “expediter” roles (e.g.,responsible for completing final assembly of customer orders, checkingthat orders are accurately fulfilled, ensuring that food preparationstaff prepared orders in accordance with customer specifications, etc.)and cleaner roles.

Often, commercial enterprises that establish a labor budget based onexpected sales employ a static, predefined employee deployment model,meaning that employees are assigned to particular roles throughout theirshifts. One problem with static employee deployment models is that theymay not appropriately satisfy changing demand for various functionsperformed by employees throughout a typical day. For example, manyrestaurants experience busy periods during common meal times, and so theneed for employees in specific roles, and the number of employees neededoverall, may be different during busy periods and slow periods. As such,some commercial enterprises employ peak period employee deploymentmodels and slow period employee deployment models to manage staffinglevels and workforce composition over the course of a day.

Employee deployment models may define when additional staff are calledinto work, such as if actual sales exceed expected sales by a thresholdamount. For example, an employee deployment model for a restaurant mayprovide for, if it appears during the course of a given day that therestaurant will exceed its $10,000 expected sales by ten percent,calling certain employees into work to satisfy customer demand, andassigning those employees to certain roles if they are called. Someemployee deployment models employ theoretical “floors” and/or “ceilings”which specify a minimum and maximum number of employees, respectively,to be working at any one time regardless of sales amount.

Some restaurants use employee certification procedures or the like toassess and identify the employees which are best suited to particularroles. As a result, if an employee deployment model for a restaurantprovides for a total often employees working at a particular time,information on each employee's expertise and prior experience may beused to determine which employee is assigned which role. Thisinformation may be used to determine not only the roles in whichemployees are initially deployed, but also the roles to which employeesare redeployed if the composition of the workforce or circumstances inthe restaurant change.

SUMMARY

Conventionally, some commercial enterprises use quantitative data (e.g.,measures of employee throughput) to evaluate employee performance. Somecommercial enterprises also employ quantitative data to determinewhether and how particular employees should be redeployed to differentroles throughout a work day. For example, a restaurant may base adecision whether to keep an employee assigned to a cashier station orredeploy her at least in part on quantitative data like the number oforders she handled in a given time period, the average amount of timeper order, etc. Even if the employee is not the most experienced orskilled cashier working in the restaurant that day, favorablequantitative data may influence a decision to keep her in that role,even if other, more experienced cashiers are reassigned to other roles.Additionally, some commercial enterprises may direct certain tasks, ormore tasks, to employees based on quantitative data. For example, ifthere are two employees assigned to food preparation stations in arestaurant, more orders may be directed to the employee which, accordingto quantitative data, completes more orders in a given time period.

The Assignee has appreciated that assigning roles and/or tasks toemployees based on quantitative data may not ensure that the needs ofthe employee's internal and external customers are entirely satisfied.Using the example of the two employees assigned to food preparationroles given above to illustrate, the first of the two employees may befaster at preparing customer orders than the second of the twoemployees, but may be more prone to errors, so that the net effect ofher completing customer orders faster is that more orders are preparedincorrectly. Using the example of the cashier given above to illustratefurther, the employee assigned to that role may be capable of takingmore orders than other employees, but may be less effective than thoseother employees at engendering warmth with customers, accuratelyconveying what the customer ordered to food preparation staff, etc., sothat the effect of the employee taking more orders is that a greaternumber of customers are left feeling dissatisfied with their experiencewith the restaurant.

As such, the Assignee has recognized that the conventional practice ofevaluating employee performance and basing employee deployment decisionson quantitative data may in certain circumstances have a negative effecton restaurant operations and/or customer satisfaction. Accordingly, someembodiments of the invention may involve evaluating employee performanceand/or basing employee deployment decisions at least in part onqualitative assessments of an employee's performance in a particularrole. Such qualitative assessments may take any of numerous forms, andmay be performed in any of numerous ways. In some examples, qualitativeassessments may relate to evaluating the employee's success in promotingcustomer satisfaction. For example, an employee's performance in acashier role may be evaluated based at least in part on the warmth withwhich she greets customers, whether she engages customers in somethingother than talk about an order, suggests side dishes or drinks to thecustomer, informs the customer what to do next after submitting anorder, and otherwise engenders a feeling on the customer's part ofsatisfaction with the transaction. In other examples, qualitativeassessments may be used to verify the accuracy of quantitative datawhich is collected to evaluate employee performance. For example, if arestaurant captures quantitative data relating to customer orderprogress through different preparation stages, then qualitativeassessments may help to determine whether employees' indications thatcertain preparation steps have been completed are accurate, or whetherthose indications are premature, and therefore skew performanceindicators.

Some embodiments of the invention provide techniques for analyzing thedeployment of employees in a restaurant. In this respect, the Assigneehas recognized that a number of conventional tools may enable thelocation of individual employees in a restaurant to be tracked overtime, and allow the area defining an employee's assigned station to bedefined, so that various conventional tools could be used to determinewhen an employee has left his/her assigned station. The Assignee hasalso recognized that when employees are not working in the stations towhich they have been assigned, the speed at which customer orders arefulfilled and the overall throughput of the restaurant may besignificantly diminished. The Assignee has further recognized, however,that in some circumstances it may be appropriate for an employee toleave his/her assigned station, for a number of reasons. As such, someembodiments of the invention are directed to determining whether anemployee who has left his/her assigned station acted appropriately indoing so, and if not, causing the employee to be redirected to his/herassigned station. In some embodiments, determining whether an employeeacted appropriately in leaving his/her assigned station may involveanalyzing video recordings of the restaurant at or around the time theemployee left his/her station, operational data describing eventsoccurring in the restaurant at or around the time the employee lefthis/her station, and/or other information. In this respect, the Assigneehas recognized that such video recordings, operational data and/or otherinformation may supply valuable context in determining whether or not anemployee acted improperly in leaving his/her assigned station in therestaurant. If the employee acted improperly, he/she may be redirectedto his/her assigned station using automated, semi-automated and/ormanual techniques.

Accordingly, some embodiments of the invention are directed to a systemfor use in analyzing deployment of employees in a restaurant. The systemcomprises: at least one employee location data source; at least onerecording device configured to capture video recordings of occurrencesin the restaurant; at least one computer-readable storage medium havinginstructions recorded thereon; and at least one processor, programmedvia the instructions to: determine, based at least in part on datagenerated by the at least one employee location data source, that anemployee vacated a station in the restaurant to which the employee isassigned during a particular time period; determine, based at least inpart on a video recording depicting the restaurant during the particulartime period, whether the employee improperly vacated the station towhich the employee is assigned; if it is determined that the employeeimproperly vacated the station, causing the employee to be redirectedback to the station.

The foregoing summary is a non-limiting overview of only some aspects ofthe invention. Some embodiments of the invention are described below anddefined in the attached claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are not intended to be drawn to scale. In thedrawings, each identical or nearly identical component illustrated inthe various figures is represented by a like numeral. For purposes ofclarity, not every component may be labeled in every drawing. In thedrawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting a representative system foranalyzing restaurant operations, in accordance with some embodiments ofthe invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a representative process for assessing anemployee's performance in a role in a restaurant, in accordance withsome embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a representative process for determining whichof a plurality of employees should perform a given role in a restaurantat a given time, in accordance with some embodiments of the invention:

FIG. 4 depicts a representative process for analyzing the deployment ofemployees in a restaurant; and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting a representative computer systemwith which some aspects of the invention may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some embodiments of the invention are directed to systems for analyzingthe operations of a restaurant. In some embodiments, such systems mayanalyze audio and/or video recordings of occurrences in the restaurantto generate a qualitative assessment of an employee's performance in arole in the restaurant during a particular time period. Quantitativedata, such as may be generated by one or more operational systemsdeployed in the restaurant, may provide an indication of the employee'sperformance in the role during the same time period. In some embodimentsof the invention, an overall assessment of the employee's performance inthe role during the time period may be based at least in part on thequalitative assessment and the quantitative data.

Some embodiments of the invention may be directed to managing thedeployment of employees in a restaurant. For example, some embodimentsmay analyze audio and/or video recordings of occurrences in a restaurantto generate a qualitative assessment of the performance by each ofmultiple employees in a corresponding role during a time period.Quantitative data may provide an indication of the employees'performance in corresponding roles during the time period. Thequalitative assessments and the quantitative data may be used, forexample, to determine which of the multiple employees should be assignedto a particular role in the restaurant in a future time period.

Some embodiments are directed to analyzing the deployment of employeesin a restaurant. In this respect, the Assignee has recognized that anumber of conventional tools may allow the location of individualrestaurant employees to be monitored over time, and that these toolsallow the area defining an employee's assigned station to be defined. Assuch, various conventional tools could be used to determine when anemployee has left his/her assigned station. The Assignee has alsorecognized that when employees are not working in the stations to whichthey have been assigned, the speed at which customer orders arefulfilled, and the overall throughput of the restaurant, may besignificantly diminished. The Assignee has further recognized, however,that in some circumstances it may be appropriate for an employee toleave his/her assigned station, for a number of reasons. As such, someembodiments of the invention are directed to determining whether anemployee who has left his/her assigned station acted appropriately indoing so, such as by analyzing video recordings of the restaurant at oraround the time the employee left his/her station, operational datadescribing events occurring in the restaurant at or around the time theemployee left his/her station, and/or other information. In thisrespect, the Assignee has recognized that such video recordings,operational data and/or other information may supply valuable context indetermining whether or not an employee acted properly or improperly inleaving his/her assigned station in the restaurant. In some embodiments,if it is determined that the employee acted improperly in leavinghis/her assigned station, then the employee may be redirected back tohis/her assigned station, using automated, semi-automated and/or manualtechniques.

I. Overview of Representative System Infrastructure

FIG. 1 depicts a representative system 100 comprising various componentsfor analyzing the operations of a restaurant. Representative system 100includes operational systems 105 a, 105 b, 105 c and 105 n, whichcapture various data relating to restaurant operations and thecustomer's experience. Operational systems 105 a-105 n may include, forexample, systems for monitoring and/or facilitating kitchen operations,for managing staff, for conducting point of sale transactions, and/orfor facilitating any of numerous aspects of restaurant operations. Anysuitable type of system, for monitoring any suitable aspect(s) of arestaurant's operations, may comprise an operational system 105.Although only four operational systems 105 are shown in FIG. 1, itshould be understood that any suitable number of operational systems maybe used in a system 100 which is implemented in accordance with aspectsof the invention.

Operational data store (ODS) 108 receives and stores data produced byoperational systems 105 a-105 n. ODS 108 may store any suitableinformation. As an example, ODS 108 may store the date and time ofindividual occurrences relating to a transaction (e.g., measured bytransaction start, time stored at tender, time sent to line, time workedat line, time sent to expediter, time delivered to customer, and/or thetime of any other suitable occurrence relating to a transaction), iteminformation associated with a transaction (e.g., including item codesfor items included in each transaction, modifiers, additions to orsubtractions from an item requested by a customer, and/or any othersuitable item information), employee information associated with atransaction (e.g., the employee code(s) for the cashier or associate whoreceived the customer's order, the code(s) for production, expediter,and/or backer employees who handled a transaction during preparation,and/or any other suitable employee information), and/or any othersuitable information relating to occurrences in a restaurant. AlthoughODS 108 is depicted in FIG. 1 as comprising only a single repository,the data included in ODS 108 may be physically and/or logicallydistributed across any suitable number of data stores. Further, data maybe stored in ODS 108 using any suitable tool(s) and/or technique(s).

Event engine 110 shown in FIG. 1 also receives data produced byoperational systems 105 a-105 n. In accordance with some embodiments ofthe invention, event engine 110 executes queries on data produced byoperational systems 105 a-105 n to identify and summarize businessmetrics. (In the description that follows, business metrics may also bereferred to as “events,” although it is to be understood that an “event”may relate to more than one occurrence or transaction, or to no specificoccurrence at all. The terms “event” and “metric” are usedinterchangeably herein.) Such metrics may be predefined, or defineddynamically based upon any one or more characteristics of data producedby operational systems 105 a-105 n. In some embodiments, event engine110 may execute predefined queries on data produced by operationalsystems 105 a-105 n, so that queries need not be executed on ODS 108 tosupport later analysis. In this respect, it should be appreciated thatODS 108 may store large amounts of data, so that query execution may betime-consuming.

Event engine 110 may identify and/or summarize any suitable businessmetric(s) represented in the data produced by operational systems 105a-105 n. Some basic examples include “of service” quantitative measuresfor specific intervals relating to a transaction (e.g., the amount oftime between an order being opened and tender occurring, the amount oftime between a make line position receiving the order and the orderbeing “bumped” to the next position, the amount of time between anexpediter receiving the order and the order being “bumped” to the nextposition, the amount of time between the order being received andcustomer delivery occurring, the total service time, the amount of timebetween a drive through order being received and pickup occurring, theamount of time between an order being ready and delivery occurring tothe customer's table, home, or business, and/or any other suitableintervals), quantitative measures relating to “bump” activity forvarious food preparation stations (e.g., total preparation times forsalads. Panini, sandwiches, and/or any other suitable “bump” measures),and quantitative measures relating to labor shifts (e.g., current andtrending labor burn rate, current and trending production velocity,current and trending transaction counts, manager on duty, number ofemployees currently in training, and/or any other suitable labor shiftmetrics). In representative system 100, the results generated via thefiltering and pre-analysis performed by event engine 110 are stored inevent data 115. As with ODS 108, although event data 115 is depicted inFIG. 1 as comprising a single repository, the data stored thereby may bedistributed, logically and/or physically, across any suitable number ofdata stores, and may be stored using any suitable tools and/ortechniques.

In some embodiments of the invention, queries which are executed byevent engine 110 may be defined using event interface 112. In thisrespect, in some embodiments of the invention, event interface 112 mayenable a user (e.g., an analyst, executive, restaurant manager, and/orany other suitable human resource) to define constructs representingmetrics to be captured by event engine 110. These constructs may bedefined in any suitable way(s). Further, event interface 112 may beimplemented using any suitable collection of hardware and/or softwarecomponents. For example, event interface 112 may comprise a standaloneapplication suitable for execution on a desktop computer (e.g., sittingin a restaurant manager's office), a web-based application running on acomputer (e.g., server computer) accessible over a network (e.g., theInternet, a local area network, a wide area network, or some combinationthereof), an “app” suitable for execution on a mobile device (e.g., asmartphone, tablet computer, and/or other mobile device), and/or anyother suitable collection comprising hardware and/or softwarecomponents. Embodiments of the invention are not limited to anyparticular manner of implementation.

In representative system 100, event data 115 is accessed by alert engine120 to identify “alert conditions” represented in event data 115. Analert condition may, for example, be any condition which indicates anoperational issue. In representative system 100, alert engine 120executes queries on event data 115 to identify alert conditions. In someembodiments of the invention, the queries executed by alert engine 120may be defined using alert interface 122. For example, alert interface122 may enable a user (e.g., an analyst, executive, restaurant manager,and/or any other suitable human resource) to define constructsrepresenting alert conditions to be captured by alert engine 125. Aswith event interface 112, alert interface 122 may be implemented usingany suitable collection of hardware and/or software components, asembodiments of the invention are not limited in this respect.

Representative system 100 also includes video capture system 140, whichmay include one or more video capture devices (e.g., video surveillancecameras) for capturing video footage relating to occurrences in therestaurant, and audio capture system 150, which may include one or morevideo capture devices (e.g., microphones) for capturing audio relatingto occurrences in the restaurant. For example, video capture system 140may capture video recordings, and audio capture system 150 may captureaudio recordings, of point of sale transactions, order preparationprocesses, dining areas, and/or any other suitable occurrences. Videocapture system 140 stores video recordings in video repository 145, andaudio capture system 150 stores audio recordings in audio repository155. Video repository 145 and audio repository 155 may each comprise anysuitable storage component(s), and employ any suitable storagetechnique(s), as the invention is not limited in this respect.

Representative system 100 also includes employee location data sources160 configured to collect and provide data regarding the location ofemployees in the restaurant over time. Employee location data sources160 may include, as examples, one or more RFID readers and tags (e.g.,so-called “broad spectrum” RFID tags which emit unique frequencies andare designed to be read from a distance, tags which are designed to beread from shorter distances, a combination of the two types, and/orother types of tags), location-aware devices of location-based servicesconfigured for geo-fencing, workstations at which employees log in toperform assigned tasks, contact-based key and/or wand readers. Wi-Finetwork access points, and/or any other suitable component(s). In someembodiments which are described in more detail below, one or more videocapture devices (e.g., devices which form part of video capture system140) may also collect and provide employee location data. Inrepresentative system 100, location data repository 165 stores employeelocation data collected by employee location data source(s) 160.Location data repository 165 may comprise any suitable storagecomponent(s), and employ any suitable storage technique(s), as theinvention is not limited in this respect.

In representative system 100, the video and audio recordings captured byvideo capture system 140 and audio capture system 150, and the employeelocation data captured by employee location data source(s) 160, mayrelate to events reflected in event data 115. In representative system100, inference engine 130 is configured to correlate video recordingsstored in video repository 145, audio recordings stored in audiorepository 155, employee location data stored in location datarepository 165, and/or event data 115. Correlation of video and/or audiorecordings, employee location data, and/or event data may be performedfor any of numerous reasons, such as to enable qualitative assessmentsof employee performance in certain roles, and/or to analyze thedeployment of employees in the restaurant, as described further below.

II. Evaluating Employee Performance

A representative process 200 for evaluating employee performance usingqualitative assessments (e.g., enabled by correlating video and/or audiorecordings with event data 115) and/or quantitative data (e.g., providedby analyzing event data 115) is shown in FIG. 2. Representative process200 may be performed to evaluate an individual employee's performance ina particular role in a restaurant during a particular time period. Atthe start of representative process 200, quantitative data relating tothe employee's performance in the role during the time period isaccessed in the act 210. Such quantitative data may comprise anysuitable measure(s) relating to any suitable number and type(s) ofoccurrence(s) in the restaurant, and may directly provide an indicationof the employee's performance in the role during the time period, orindirectly provide such an indication. As examples, the quantitativedata accessed in act 210 may comprise “speed of service” measures (suchas the amount of time between an order being opened and tenderoccurring, the amount of time between a make line position receiving theorder and the order being “bumped” to the next position, the amount oftime between an expediter receiving the order and the order being“bumped” to the next position, the amount of time between a verbal orderbeing received and delivery or pickup occurring, the total service time,the amount of time between a drive-through order being received anddelivery or pickup occurring, the amount of time between a kiosk orderbeing received and delivery or pickup occurring, the amount of timebetween an order being ready and delivery occurring to the customer'stable, home, or business, the amount of time a cash register is open,and/or any other suitable intervals), measures relating to queues (e.g.,the length of a line at a register, kiosk, drive-through station, etc.),measures relating to “bump” activity for various food preparationstations (e.g., preparation times for salads, Panini, sandwiches, and/orany other suitable “bump” measures), measures relating to labor shifts(e.g., current and trending labor burn rate, current and trendingproduction velocity, current and trending transaction counts, manager onduty, number of employees currently in training, employeecertifications, employee shift preferences, pay rates, break periods,availability, and/or any other suitable labor shift metrics), and/or anyother suitable quantitative measure(s). Quantitative data may relate toindividual occurrences within the restaurant, or be produced viastatistical analysis of information on multiple occurrences (e.g.,quantitative data may comprise a median, mean, minimum, maximum,standard deviation, and/or other interpretation of measures relating tomultiple individual occurrences). Any suitable quantitative data may beaccessed and/or analyzed, in any suitable way(s). In the representativesystem 100 shown in FIG. 1, inference engine 130 may access quantitativedata stored in event data 115, generated by event engine 110 based ondata produced by operational systems 105 a-105 n.

Representative process 200 (FIG. 2) then proceeds to act 220, whereinone or more audio and/or video recordings which relate to the employee'sperformance in the role during the time period are identified andaccessed. In some embodiments, these audio and/or video recordings maybe identified using techniques like those described in commonly assignedU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/837,940, filed Mar. 15, 2013,entitled USE OF VIDEO TO MANAGE PROCESS QUALITY, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety. Some aspects of these techniquesare summarized below.

In some embodiments, at least some of the records stored in event data115 include date and time stamps. A date and time stamp for a record mayindicate, for example, when the record was first produced and/or when itwas stored in a repository. In some embodiments, the video recordingsstored in video repository 145 and the audio recordings stored in audiorepository 155 also include date and time stamps. As a result, the dateand time stamp for an event record or an alert record may be correlatedwith corresponding video and/or audio recordings having correspondingdate and time stamps.

Of course, a date and time stamp for video and/or audio recordings neednot exactly match a date and time stamp for a correlated event record.For example, it may be desirable to retrieve video and/or audiorecordings captured just before and/or just after an event was recordedor an alert was noted. For example, if the date and time stamp for anevent record indicates that the event was recorded at a particular time,then video and/or audio recordings having a date and time stampindicating they were captured starting thirty seconds prior to thattime, and/or ending thirty seconds after that time, may be retrieved.The date and time stamps for an event and/or alert record and forcorresponding video and/or audio recordings may have any suitablerelationship and/or correspondence, as embodiments of the invention arenot limited in this respect.

Information other than date and time stamps may also, or alternatively,be used to retrieve video and/or audio recordings which correspond to anevent record. For example, if the data included in an event record to beanalyzed indicates that it originated from a particular point of saleterminal, then this information may be used to identify the video and/oraudio recordings which are to be retrieved (e.g., video footagedepicting the terminal, audio recordings produced by a microphone at theterminal, etc.). Similarly, if the data included in an event recordindicates that it originated from a kitchen management system, then thisinformation may be used to identify the video and/or audio recordings tobe retrieved (e.g., video and/or audio recordings of the restaurant'sfood preparation area). Any suitable information may be used to retrievevideo recordings from video repository 145 and/or audio recordings fromaudio repository 155.

Representative process 200 then proceeds to act 230, wherein the audioand/or video recording(s) identified and accessed in the act 220 areanalyzed to generate a qualitative assessment of the employee'sperformance in the first role in the restaurant during the time period.A qualitative assessment may be performed in any of numerous ways, andthe result of a qualitative assessment may take any of numerous forms.In some embodiments of the invention, a qualitative assessment may beone which involves evaluating the quality with which the employeeperforms a function defined by the role. As such, it may involveappraising the employee's performance of the function at least in partthrough observation, as opposed to by objectively measuring his/herperformance solely via data which is expressed numerically (as might bedone to, for example, determine how quickly the function was completed,the extent to which it was completed, etc.). In this respect, aqualitative assessment may involve an estimation of the employee'sperformance of the function which is subjective, at least to someextent, such as a consideration of the employee's performance inrelation to one or more preconceived notions of how the function shouldbe performed. As such, in some embodiments, a qualitative assessment maybe performed, at least in part, by a human actor, who may compare theemployee's performance of the function to a mental model of how thefunction is to be carried out.

Of course, although a qualitative assessment is not performed using onlyquantitative data, it should be appreciated that the result of aqualitative assessment may be expressed numerically. For example, theresult of a qualitative assessment may be a score which represents alevel of quality with which the employee performed the function, and/orother information which is expressed numerically. It should also beappreciated that performing a qualitative assessment may involve takinginto consideration information which is or can be expressed numerically.For example, qualitatively assessing the performance of a foodpreparation worker in making a salad may involve taking intoconsideration the amount of dressing the worker placed on the salad.

It should further be appreciated that, although a human may be involvedin qualitatively assessing an employee's performance in someembodiments, the invention is not limited to being implemented in thismanner. Moreover, if a human is involved in a qualitative assessment,that involvement may be at any suitable level, for any suitablepurpose(s), and any other suitable component(s) (e.g., one or morecomputing components, which may execute programmed instructions) mayalso be involved in performing the qualitative assessment.

As noted above, a qualitative assessment may relate to evaluating anemployee's performance of any of numerous functions in any of numerousroles. Some representative qualitative assessments may relate generallyto food preparation accuracy (e.g., evaluating whether employees usedspecified ingredients in food items, used portioning tools correctly,assembled food items with ingredients added in the correct sequence,etc.), engendering warmth with customers (e.g., evaluating the manner inwhich a cashier greeted a customer, smiled at the customer, askedwhether the customer is a member of a loyalty program, engaged thecustomer in conversation about something other than the transaction athand, offered the customer a drink with his/her order, said “thank you”to the customer, etc.), cleanliness (e.g., evaluating the extent towhich staff keep areas in the restaurant clean, such as dining roomtables and chairs, dining room floors, trash containers and bus bins,drink stations, patio areas, washrooms, etc.), and/or otherconsiderations. Any of numerous types of assessments may be performed toevaluate the quality with which an employee performs a particularfunction, and so the foregoing list should not be construed asexhaustive.

In some embodiments of the invention, the quality with which an employeeperforms a function may be defined, at least in part, by the businessobjectives of the enterprise and how performing the function supportsthe fulfillment of those objectives. For example, if a businessobjective of a restaurant is to encourage repeat customers and referralsby training employees in “customer-facing” roles to engender a feelingof warmth and satisfaction on the customer's part in every customerinteraction, then the quality with which a cashier performs the functionof interacting with customers may be evaluated, at least in part, uponhis ability to engender such warmth and satisfaction. To measure thequality with which the employee performs this function, video and/oraudio recordings of the employee at the cashier station which have beencorrelated with customer interaction events may be analyzed to determinewhether the employee greeted each customer properly, engaged him/her inconversation about something other than the transaction (such as askingabout his/her day, mentioning something about the weather, etc.),offered the customer side dishes, offered a drink upgrade, and/orotherwise followed one or more guidelines (e.g., cues in a scriptprovided by restaurant management) to make the customer feel good aboutthe interaction. Video and/or audio recordings may also be analyzed todetermine whether the employee assigned to a cashier station thanked thecustomer for his/her business, provided him/her a beverage cup anddirected her to the beverage machines, informed the customer what to dowhile waiting for his/her order to be prepared, etc.

The analysis of video and/or audio recordings may be performed in any ofnumerous ways. For example, as noted above, in some embodiments,recordings may be analyzed, at least in part, by a human actor.Alternatively or additionally, audio recordings may be processed usingspeech recognition tools. Such analysis and/or processing may beperformed to identify words or phrases used by an employee and/orcustomer during an interaction, determine the presence or absence ofspecific words or phrases, evaluate the customer's and/or employee'stone, volume, pitch and/or speech rate before, during and/or after theinteraction, and/or assess any other suitable sound or characteristic(s)thereof relating to an employee's performance in a role. Videorecordings may be processed, for example, using image analysis tools toevaluate the number, characteristics and/or identify of people or otherobjects in a location at a particular time, facial expressions ormannerisms used by an employee and/or customer before, during and/orafter an interaction, actions taken by an employee and/or customerbefore, during and/or after an interaction, and/or assess any othersuitable characteristic(s) of moving images and/or accompanying audiowhich relates to an employee's performance in a role. Any suitabletool(s) and/or technique(s) may be used for this purpose, whether nowknown or later developed.

As another example of a qualitative assessment of an employee'sperformance in a role in a restaurant, if a business objective of therestaurant is to promote customer satisfaction by providing customerswith a modicum of control over how their food is prepared, then thequality with which a cashier performs the function of communicatingorders to food preparation staff may be evaluated based at least in partupon her ability to accurately convey information provided by thecustomer such as instructions relating to how he/she would like theorder to be prepared. To measure the quality with which the employeeperforms this function, audio and/or to video recordings of a cashieraccepting a customer's order may be analyzed (e.g., by a human actor,and/or using one or more automated tools) to assess whether the cashiercompletely and accurately conveyed the details of the order to foodpreparation staff. As one example, information conveyed by the customer(e.g., as captured in the audio and/or video recordings) may be comparedto information entered into a computer terminal by the cashier (e.g.,stored in event data 115) and/or verbally communicated to foodpreparation staff (e.g., as may also be captured in the audio and/orvideo recordings).

It should be appreciated, of course, that qualitative assessments whichrelate to whether an employee completely and accurately conveysinformation to other employees need not relate to a cashiercommunicating order information to food preparation staff. Anycommunication of information, by any employee to any other employee(s),may be qualitatively assessed for this purpose.

Other representative forms of qualitative assessment may assist inverifying the accuracy of other (e.g., quantitative) data relating to anemployee's performance. As an example, many restaurants capturequantitative data relating to how quickly food preparation workerscomplete customer orders, and today, this data is generally consideredan important indicator of the performance of employees assigned to foodpreparation roles. However, the Assignee has recognized that in manyrestaurants, it is not uncommon for a particular employee to be assignednot only to a station on a food preparation production line, but also toan “expediter” role (e.g., to complete final assembly of customerorders, check order accuracy, ensure food preparation staff in differentareas did their job in preparing orders that meet customerspecifications, etc.) at the same time. The Assignee has also recognizedthat when an employee has this dual role, it is not uncommon for him/herto prematurely indicate that the individual stage of food preparationassigned to him/her at his/her station has been completed, and then usethe time allotted to him/her as “expediter” to complete this stage. Byindicating that the assigned stage of food preparation has beencompleted before it actually has, the employee can make it appear tomanagement (i.e., based only on quantitative data) that he/she isperforming in this role at an above-average level, when in fact he/shemay be performing at an average or below-average level. This type ofpremature indication that a task has been completed when it actuallyhasn't can skew operational data, restricting management's ability todiagnose operational issues, improve processes over time, and identifyemployee training opportunities. As such, in some embodiments of theinvention, video and/or audio recordings of occurrences in therestaurant may be analyzed (e.g., compared to information produced byoperational systems on those same occurrences) to determine whether anemployee prematurely indicated the completion of a task. This type ofanalysis may be performed in any of numerous ways, on any of numeroustypes of tasks. Using the example given above to illustrate, ifoperational data indicates that a food preparation task has beencompleted much more quickly than expected, and if the employee assignedto the task is also assigned to an “expediter” role, then audio and/orvideo recordings of the task may be analyzed to determine whether thetask was actually completed in the amount of time indicated by theemployee, and if not, the employee may be advised of the importance ofaccurate operational data.

It should be appreciated that the act 230 may involve making multiplequalitative assessments, to evaluate how an employee performs each ofmultiple functions. Using the example of the cashier given above toillustrate, a first qualitative assessment in the act 230 may relate tohow the cashier interacts with customers, and a second qualitativeassessment in the act 230 may relate to how well he/she accuratelycommunicates information to food preparation staff. In this respect,some embodiments of the invention recognize that many employees areasked to perform more than one function in a given role, and may performsome functions better than others at any given stage in his/herdevelopment.

It should be appreciated that the foregoing examples are provided toillustrate some of the ways that different forms of qualitativeassessment may assist in evaluating an employee's performance in a role.Of course, the examples given above do not constitute an exhaustivelist, as any of numerous forms of qualitative assessment may assist inevaluating employee performance, in any of numerous ways. The inventionis not limited to being implemented in any particular fashion.

Returning to FIG. 2, at the completion of act 230, representativeprocess 200 proceeds to act 240, wherein an overall assessment of theemployee's performance in the role is generated based at least in parton the qualitative assessment(s) generated in the act 230 and thequantitative measure(s) accessed in the act 210. Such an overallassessment of the employee's performance may assist in determiningwhether the employee is the best candidate to assume the role at somefuture time, whether the employee should continue in the role now,and/or in making any other suitable determination(s). At the completionof act 240, representative process 200 completes.

Some embodiments of the invention may use qualitative assessments to notonly evaluate the performance of individual employees in a particularrole, but also to identify the employees that should be assigned toparticular roles in subsequent time periods. In this respect, someembodiments may enable problems associated with particular employeesbeing deployed in roles for which those employees are not well-suited tobe avoided, by ensuring that employees are assigned to roles for whichthey are well-suited. FIG. 3 depicts a representative process 300 whichemploys qualitative assessments to determine which of a population ofemployees should be assigned to a particular role at a given time in thefuture.

At the start of representative process 300, quantitative data relatingto the performance of a population of employees in various roles in arestaurant during one or more previous time periods is accessed. Thisquantitative data may be accessed using any suitable tools and/ortechniques. For example, as described above with reference to act 210 ofrepresentative process 200 (FIG. 2), act 310 may involve inferenceengine 130 (FIG. 1) accessing event data 115 which is generated by eventengine 110 based upon information supplied by operational systems 105a-105 n. The previous time period(s) may include any suitable quantityof time intervals, spanning any suitable length of time.

Representative process 300 then proceeds to act 320, wherein one or moreaudio and/or video recordings relating to each of the population ofemployees performing in one or more corresponding roles during theprevious time period(s) is accessed. Like act 310, act 320 may also beperformed using any suitable tool(s) and/or technique(s). For example,as described above with reference to act 220 of representative process200, act 320 may involve inference engine 130 accessing one or moreaudio recordings stored in audio repository 155 and/or one or more videorecordings stored in video repository 145 which correlate to eventrecords stored in event data 115. As an example, act 320 may involveusing date and time stamps to correlate audio and/or video recordingsand corresponding event records.

Representative process 300 then proceeds to act 330, wherein the audioand/or video recording(s) are analyzed to generate one or morequalitative assessments for each of the population of employeesperforming in one or more roles in the restaurant during the previoustime period(s). As discussed above with reference to representativeprocess 200, a qualitative assessment may take any of numerous forms,and be generated in any of numerous ways. For example, act 330 mayinvolve analyzing audio and/or video recordings collected during one ormore previous periods to qualitatively assess how employees haveperformed one or more functions in cashier roles, food preparationroles, “expediter” roles, and/or other roles during the period(s). Thequalitative assessment(s) generated in act 330 for each employee mayinclude an assessment of his/her performance during the overallperiod(s) examined, an assessment of his/her performance during a subsetof the periods (if more than one previous period is examined), anassessment of his/her development (e.g., improvement in one or moreareas) over the course of time (if more than one previous period isexamined), and/or take any other suitable form(s).

Representative process 300 then proceeds to act 340, wherein adetermination is made, based at least in part on the qualitativeassessment(s) generated in the act 330 and the quantitative dataaccessed in the act 310, which of the population of employees should bedeployed in a particular role during a future time period. This mayinvolve identifying a single employee to serve in the role in the futuretime period or, if the role may have multiple employees assigned theretoat any one time, identifying the multiple employees to serve in therole. Of course, if multiple employees are identified to serve in arole, they need not serve in the role during the same time period. Thetime period during which a first identified employee is to serve in therole may overlap to any suitable extent with a time period during whicha second identified employee is to serve in the role.

In some embodiments, the future time period may not be immediately afterrepresentative process 300 is performed. As such, representative process300 may be performed, for example, to define an employee deploymentmodel for the restaurant for some time period in the future, includingidentifying which employees are asked to work during this time period,and which employees are assigned to which roles and for how long.

In some embodiments, however, the future time period may be immediatelyafter representative process 300) is performed, so that the act 340) mayinvolve determining which of a population of employees currently workingin a restaurant is best suited to assume a particular role immediatelythereafter. If an employee is currently assigned to the role beingevaluated, representative process 300 may be performed to determinewhether and when that employee should be replaced in the role, whoshould assume the role in that employee's place, the role to which theemployee should be reassigned, and to which role an employee currentlyassigned to that other role should be next assigned. Thus, it should beappreciated that representative process 300 may be performed to defineand/or redefine the employee deployment model for a restaurant,dynamically and based on quantitative and qualitative data that may begathered in real time.

It should also be appreciated that a decision to replace an employee ina particular role may be based on an evaluation of that employee'sperformance in that role, an evaluation of another employee's projectedfuture performance in the role, some combination of theseconsiderations, and/or other information. For example, in someembodiments, a determination may be made to reassign an employee from aparticular role if his/her performance in that role falls below acertain threshold level (which may be predetermined, or dynamicallydefined, in any suitable fashion) based on quantitative and qualitativedata which is gathered in real time. In some embodiments, the otheremployee that is to replace that employee in the role may be identifiedthrough an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data relating tothat other employee's previous performance, in that role and/or otherroles. Numerous uses and applications for a process of evaluating theperformance of a population of employees in various roles may beenvisioned, and embodiments of the invention may be implemented in anyof numerous ways.

At the completion of the act 340, representative process 300 completes.

In some embodiments of the invention, employees may be automaticallyredeployed from one role to another in a restaurant without manualintervention by a manager. This may be performed in any of numerousways. For example, inference engine 130 may be configured toelectronically notify an employee that he/she is being reassigned toanother role, automatically logged off the workstation at which he/sheis currently working, and prompted to report to a different stationwhere he/she may be allowed to log in.

Of course, the invention is not limited to reassigning employeesautomatically without a manager's intervention. For example, in someembodiments, a manager may be notified (e.g., as a result of theexecution of an automated routine) that an employee currently assignedto a first role may be better suited to a second role than anotheremployee currently assigned to the second role, and may be prompted toconsider reassigning the employees. The manager may then decide whetherto reassign the employees or not. If the manager opts to not reassignthe employees, this decision may be logged, and may later be analyzed inevaluating the restaurant's operations and/or the performance of themanager and/or the employees.

In other embodiments, a manager may be notified that employees will bereassigned automatically if he/she does not override the decision withina certain period of time. Any suitable technique(s), includingautomatic, semi-automatic, and/or manual technique(s) may be employed,as the invention is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, a determination that a particular employee is bestsuited to assume a particular role may influence, wholly or in part,which employees are called into work if it is determined that therestaurant is currently understaffed. For example, if it is determinedthat a particular employee who is not currently working is well-suitedto assume an “expediter” role, and there is a current need for anadditional employee in that role, then the employee may be called intowork. The employee may, for example, be called in automatically. Forexample, inference engine 130 may be configured to automatically contactthe employee (e.g., send the employee a text, email and/or voicemessage) to determine whether he/she is available to work, process andlog a response from the employee, and schedule the employee to work ifwarranted. In some embodiments, if it is determined that an employeethat is well-suited for a particular role is unavailable to come intowork, then another employee (e.g., the next-best suited employee for therole) may be identified and contacted (e.g., automatically as describedabove, or in some other fashion).

Of course, the invention is not limited to considering only employeeswho are not currently working for roles in an understaffed restaurant.For example, if the employee who is determined to be well-suited to takeon the “expediter” role in the example above is currently working as acashier, then in some embodiments, that employee may be reassigned tothe “expediter” role, and a determination may be made (e.g., based atleast in part on an analysis of quantitative and qualitativeinformation, on employees currently working and/or employees notcurrently working) which other employee (whether currently working ornot) is well-suited to assume the cashier role in his/her place.

An identification of an employee as being well-suited to assume aparticular role may be based on any suitable information. For example,if it appears from an analysis of quantitative and qualitativeinformation that a particular employee who is not currently working isbest suited to assume an “expediter” role, but other informationindicates that calling that particular employee into work wouldnecessitate paying him/her overtime pay and there are less costlyalternatives available (e.g., an employee who is currently working),then the employee who is not currently working may not be selected forthe role.

Although the foregoing examples relate to a qualitative assessment of anemployee's performance in a role being based on an analysis of audioand/or video recordings, it should be appreciated that the invention isnot limited to using only this type of information, and that anysuitable type of information may be used in generating a qualitativeassessment. For example, some embodiments of the invention may employcustomer survey responses to qualitatively assess an employee'sperformance in a role. In this respect, some restaurants invitecustomers to respond to an online survey about their experience, and theonline survey is accessed using information (e.g., a universal resourcelocator, or URL) that allows the restaurant to correlate the customerwith a particular transaction or order. If the customer indicates on thesurvey that he/she was greeted warmly by the cashier but that his/herfood was overcooked, this may influence qualitative assessments of thecashier and of the food preparation employee that prepared the order,and these assessments may influence the roles to which these employeesare assigned in the future.

III. Analyzing Employee Deployment

Some embodiments of the invention are directed to analyzing thedeployment of employees in a restaurant, and more particularly todetermining whether employees are working at the stations to which theyhave been assigned, according to prescribed standards and procedures. Inthis respect, the Assignee has appreciated that a number of conventionaltools may enable the location of individual employees in a restaurant tobe tracked over time, and that these tools may allow the area defining astation to which an employee is assigned to be defined, so thatconventional tools may be used to determine when an employee has vacateda station to which he/she has been assigned. The Assignee has alsoappreciated that if individual employees are not working in the stationsto which they have been assigned according to prescribed standards andprocedures, the speed at which customer orders are fulfilled and theoverall throughput of the restaurant may be significantly diminished.

The Assignee has also recognized, however, that in some circumstances itmay be appropriate for an employee to leave his/her assigned station,for a number of reasons. For example, there may be no work for theemployee to perform in an assigned station at a given time, there may betasks which he/she has been asked to perform which require him/her totemporarily leave the station, or there may be an emergency in therestaurant at which the employee's assistance is needed. As such, someembodiments of the invention are directed to determining whether anemployee who has vacated his/her assigned station acted appropriately indoing so, based on the circumstances present in the restaurant at thattime. If it is determined that the employee acted inappropriately, thenthe employee may, for example, be automatically redirected back to theassigned station by sending electronic notifications to the employeeand/or his/her manager, ceasing the flow of work to the station to whichthe employee has improperly migrated, automatically logging the employeeoff a terminal at a station to which the employee has improperlymigrated, and/or taking any of numerous other automatic redirectionactions.

In some embodiments, the information which is used to determine whetheran employee acted appropriately in leaving his/her assigned stationincludes (but is not limited to) one or more video recordings depictingevents occurring in the restaurant at the time the employee left thestation. The video recording(s) may depict the employee, the station,one or more areas around the station, one or more other areas in therestaurant, the exterior of the restaurant, and/or any other suitablesetting(s) or object(s). The video recording(s) may be analyzed, in anyof numerous ways, using manual, semi-automated and/or automatedtechniques. The analysis of the video recording(s) may, for example,provide valuable context which can be helpful in determining whether theemployee acted appropriately at the time in question.

In this respect, the Assignee has recognized that there may be a numberof reasons why leaving an assigned station may be appropriate givencircumstances in the restaurant. For example, some restaurants may askemployees who are assigned to cashier stations to perform certain tasksin other areas of the restaurant depending on the content of customerorders and current conditions in the restaurant. As an example, arestaurant with a coffee drink preparation (“barista”) area which is ina different area than the restaurant's cashier stations may specify thatif a cashier receives a customer order which includes a coffee drink,the cashier is to leave the cashier station after entering the order andwalk the customer to the barista area to prepare the coffee drink,unless there is currently a line of customers at the barista station, inwhich case the employee is to ask the customer to walk to the baristastation to retrieve the coffee drink himself/herself after it is made byanother employee. Thus, in this example, a determination whether theemployee acted appropriately in leaving the cashier station is based onoperational data indicating the content of a customer's order (e.g.,whether or not the order included a coffee drink, as captured from thecashier workstation and indicated in event data 115 (FIG. 1)) and videowhich depicts whether or not there was a line at the barista station atthe time the customer's order was received (e.g., as captured by videocapture system 140 and stored in video repository 145 (FIG. 1)). Only byreviewing this additional information can it be determined whethercircumstances warranted the employee leaving his/her station.

As another example, some restaurants assign employees to so-called“slide” positions in which the tasks assigned to an employee depends oncurrent conditions in the restaurant. For example, an employee may beassigned to a slide position in which he/she is to give first priorityto taking customer orders at a cashier station, but if there are nocustomers waiting to give orders, he/she is to make coffee drinks forcustomers at a barista area in another part of the restaurant, and ifthere are no customers waiting for coffee drinks, then he/she is to tidya case in another part of the restaurant which displays baked goods. Inthis example, a determination whether the employee improperly lefthis/her station may consider video recordings showing whether or notthere were any customers in line, operational data indicating whetherany coffee drink orders were pending, and/or other information.

It should be appreciated that a determination whether an employee actedappropriately in leaving his/her assigned station may be made in any ofnumerous ways, using any of numerous types of information. In someembodiments, this information may include video depicting eventsoccurring in the restaurant at or around the time the employee lefthis/her assigned station, but other embodiments may not employ videorecordings.

It should also be appreciated that an analysis of employee deploymentmay relate to employees assigned to any suitable roles. In embodimentswhich are deployed in a restaurant, deployment analysis may relate tocashiers, food preparation staff, table runners, bussers, dishwashers,expediters, technical support staff and/or employees assigned to anyother suitable role(s).

FIG. 4 depicts a representative process 400 for analyzing the deploymentof employees in a restaurant. Representative process 400 may beperformed, for example, to determine whether an employee who lefthis/her assigned station acted appropriately in doing so. At the startof representative process 400, the location of one or more employeesworking in a restaurant is monitored. This may be performed in any ofnumerous ways, using any suitable tool(s) and/or technique(s). Forexample, employee location data source(s) 160, shown in FIG. 1, may beused to collect and provide data on the location of one or moreemployees in a restaurant over time. The employee location data which iscaptured by employee location data source(s) 160 may be stored inlocation data repository 165 and processed by inference engine 130.

The employee location data source(s) 160 may consist of any suitablecomponent(s). For example, RFID readers and tags, location-aware devicesof location-based services configured for geo-fencing, workstations atwhich employees log in to perform assigned tasks, contact-based keyand/or wand readers, Wi-Fi network access points, and/or any othersuitable component(s) may be used to collect employee location data.Further, components which track and record employee location based uponthe receipt of a signal may be implemented in any suitable way. Forexample, embodiments which use RFID technologies for tracking employeeslocation may employ so-called “broad spectrum” RFID tags which emitunique frequencies and are designed to be read from a distance, tagswhich are designed to be read from shorter distances, a combination ofthe two types of tags, and/or any other suitable tool(s). Any ofnumerous modes of implementation may be employed, as the invention isnot limited in this respect.

Additionally or alternatively to the tracking components listed above,some embodiments of the invention may employ one or more video capturedevices (e.g., devices which form part of video capture system 140,shown in FIG. 1) to track the location of employees within a restaurant.For example, some embodiments may provide for one or more “digitalboundaries” to be established around or within the frame of view of avideo camera, as is known in the art. Additionally or alternatively,some embodiments may employ digital recognition technologies to identifypeople and/or objects which are shown within the frame of view of avideo camera. Using such tools, the images which are captured by a videocamera may be analyzed to determine whether or not any people arepresent within an established digital boundary at a given time, and/orthe identity of any one or more of the people shown. This informationmay be used to track, for example, the location and movement ofemployees within the restaurant over time.

At the completion of the act 410, representative process 400 proceeds toact 420, wherein a determination is made, based upon the data that wascaptured in the act 410 by employee location data source(s) 160 and/orvideo capture system 140, whether an employee has left his/her assignedstation in the restaurant. Recognizing that an employee's “station” maytake any of numerous forms, shapes and sizes within the restaurant, thisdetermination may be made in any of numerous ways, using any suitabletool(s) and/or technique(s). For example, an employee assigned to a foodpreparation role may work in a small area nearly shoulder-to-shoulderwith other staff in a food preparation area, while an employee assignedto a cashier role may be assigned to an area roughly three feet by threefeet next to a cashier workstation, and an employee assigned to anexpediter role may roam about a wide area in the restaurant preparingfood for final delivery to a customer. Determining whether an employeehas vacated his/her station may take into account the size, shape andarea which the station occupies.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the boundaries defining an employee'sstation may vary based on a number of considerations. For example, insome embodiments, the boundaries defining the stations assigned to oneor more employees may vary based on circumstances in the restaurant. Asan example, the boundaries defining the stations to which some employeesare assigned may expand to encompass more area during busy periods, toallow those employees the freedom to move about the restaurant to attendto customers' needs, while the boundaries defining the stations to whichother employees are assigned may shrink during busy periods, to ensurethat certain key processes are performed as designed so as to maintainspeed of service. Any of numerous considerations may affect how theboundaries of a station vary over time.

If it is determined in the act 420 that the employee has not vacatedhis/her station, then representative process 400 returns to act 410, sothat the employee's location can continue to be monitored. However, ifit is determined in the act 420 that the employee has vacated his/herstation, then representative process 400 proceeds to act 430, wherein adetermination is made whether the employee acted appropriately in doingso.

A determination whether an employee acted appropriately in vacatinghis/her station may be made in any of numerous ways, based on any ofnumerous types of information. As noted above, this determination may bebased in part on an assessment of circumstances in the restaurant at thetime the employee left the station, and/or other data providing contextfor the employee's decision. As such, video depicting events occurringin the restaurant at the time the employee left the station, operationaldata describing events occurring at the time the employee left thestation (e.g., relating to the content of customer orders), and/or anyother suitable type(s) of information may be considered in making thisdetermination.

In embodiments in which more than one type of information is consideredin determining whether the employee acted appropriately in leavinghis/her assigned station, different types of information may becorrelated using date and time stamps, as described above with referenceto FIG. 1. For example, in some embodiments, at least some of therecords stored in location data repository 160 may include date and timestamps which indicate (for example) when a record was produced and/orstored, at least some of the video recordings stored in video repository145 may include date and time stamps which indicate (for example) when arecording was created and/or stored, and at least some of the operationdata stored in event data 115 may include date and time stamps whichindicate (for example) when an operational data record was createdand/or stored. The respective date and time stamps may be used tocorrelate different types of records and/or recordings, so as toascertain the circumstances present in the restaurant when the employeeleft the station.

Various factors may be considered in determining whether an employeeacted properly in leaving his/her assigned station. For example, ifvideo recordings and/or operational data indicate that there was no workfor the employee to perform in the assigned station at the time he/sheleft (so that leaving the station allowed him/her to remain productiveuntil there was work to perform at the assigned station), indicate thatthere were tasks which he/she was asked to perform which require him/herto leave the station, indicate that there was an emergency in therestaurant at which the employee's assistance was needed, and/orindicate that there were other mitigating circumstances present in therestaurant at the time he/she left the assigned station, any of all ofthese may whether he/she is determined to have acted appropriately.

It should be appreciated that this determination may be made in anautomated, semi-automated or manual fashion. For example, if videodepicting events in the restaurant is analyzed to determine whether theemployee acted appropriately, the analysis may be performed by anautomated procedure, by a human operator, or using a combination ofautomated and manual techniques. Operational data and/or otherinformation may be analyzed or considered using any suitable tool(s)and/or technique(s).

In some settings, a determination that an employee has improperly lefthis/her assigned station in a food preparation area may indicate thatprescribed food preparation procedures are not being followed. Forexample, the Assignee has recognized that food preparation staffsometimes do not follow the “production line” model prescribed for thepreparation of certain food items, and that after completing a task aspart of preparing a food item in a production line model some employeesmay move with the food item to the next station in the line, and performthe next task associated with that station rather than passing the fooditem to the worker assigned to that station as prescribed, so that theworker assigned to that station can perform the task. The Assignee hasalso recognized that when this occurs, the integrity of food preparationprocesses (which are typically designed to maximize efficiency andthroughput in the restaurant) is compromised, and the speed at whichcustomer orders are fulfilled is often significantly affected. Giventhat the financial performance of many restaurants is heavily influencedby employee throughput, compromised operational integrity leading todiminished speed of service can have a significant negative effect on arestaurant's performance. Thus, the Assignee has recognized that quicklyand accurately detecting when an employee has inappropriately lefthis/her assigned station in a restaurant may improve the restaurant'sfinancial performance.

If it is determined in the act 430 that the employee has not actedinappropriately in vacating his/her assigned station, thenrepresentative process 400 returns to act 410, and repeats as describedabove. However, if it is determined in the act 430 that the employee hasacted inappropriately in vacating his/her station, then representativeprocess 400 proceeds to act 440, which involves causing the employee tobe redirected to his/her assigned station.

Redirecting an employee to his/her station may be performed in any ofnumerous ways. For example, some embodiments may provide forautomatically alerting the employee that he/she has inappropriately lefthis/her assigned station and should return. For example, in someembodiments, inference engine 130 (FIG. 1) may be configured to issueelectronic notifications, such as notifications which are addressedspecifically to the employee rather than being broadcast to allemployees. Electronic notifications may be addressed to specificemployees in any of numerous ways. For example, some embodiments mayprovide for notifications to be addressed to a device operated by theemployee, like a workstation which is at or near the location to whichthe employee has improperly migrated, or a smartphone or other mobiledevice operated by the employee. As one example, if an employee hasimproperly migrated to a cashier station and logged on to a terminalthere, then an electronic notification may be sent for display on theterminal screen to notify the employee that he/she should return tohis/her assigned station. As another example, if it is determined basedon employee location data captured in the act 410 that an employee hasmigrated from a table runner station to a particular spot in the foodpreparation area, then an electronic notification may be addressed to amonitor located at or near that spot.

Redirecting an employee to his/her station may also, or alternatively,be accomplished by automatically ceasing the flow of new work to astation to which the employee has improperly migrated. For example, ifan employee has improperly migrated to a food preparation station atwhich information on pending orders is displayed on a monitor, theninference engine 130 may cause information on new orders to stop beingsent to the monitor, so that the employee is forced to return to his/herassigned station by virtue of having no work to perform at the stationto which he/she migrated.

Redirection may also, or alternatively, be accomplished by automaticallylogging the employee off a workstation at a location to which he/she hasimproperly migrated. Continuing to with the example given above of theemployee who has improperly migrated to a cashier station to illustrate,if after being notified to return to his/her station the employeecontinues to work at the cashier station, then inference engine 130 maycause the employee to be automatically logged off the terminal at thecashier station so that he/she is encouraged to return to his/herassigned station.

Of course, redirection of an employee to an assigned station need not beperformed automatically. For example, in some embodiments, an employeemay be redirected by notifying the employee's manager that he/she hasimproperly left his/her assigned station. Notification may beaccomplished, for example, using the techniques described above withrespect to electronically notifying employees, and/or using othertechniques, such as by sending a notification for display on a manager'selectronic dashboard.

In some implementations, notifying a manager that an employee hasimproperly left an assigned station, rather than automaticallyredirecting the employee, may enable the manager to handle unusualcircumstances in the restaurant. For example, if a large number ofcustomers all arrive at the restaurant at once, and the managerdetermines that some employees should temporarily help with tasks whichare unrelated to their previously assigned duties, then allowing themanager to determine where employees work rather than automaticallyredirecting the employees back to their assigned stations may enable themanager to deal with the situation in the manner which seems mosteffective to him/her at the time.

Some embodiments of the invention may provide for notifying anemployee's manager in or near real-time when the employee improperlyvacates his/her assigned station, so that the manager may respond asquickly as possible to minimize the effect on the restaurant'sperformance. For example, in some embodiments, inference engine 130 maybe configured to analyze operational data stored in event data 115,location data stored in location data repository 165, and/or videorecordings stored in video repository 145 as the different types ofinformation are collected and stored so as to enable notifications to besent in or near real-time to restaurant managers.

At the completion of act 430, representative process 400 ends.

It should be appreciated that the functionality described above wherebya determination is made whether an employee has improperly left his/herassigned station may also be used to determine whether an employee whichhas been reassigned from one station to another (e.g., as a result ofthe processing described above with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3) hasreported to their new station and/or continues to work at the newstation after reassignment. For example, operational data stored inevent data 115, location data stored in location data repository 165,and/or video recordings stored in video repository 145 may be analyzedafter an employee has been reassigned to determine whether the employeereported to a new station on a timely basis, continues to work in thatrole after some predefined time period has passed, etc.

IV. Implementation Details

It should be appreciated that the representative processes describedabove with reference to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 are merely examples ofprocesses for performing the described functions, and that any ofnumerous variations on these representative processes are possible. Forexample, variations on any of all of representative processes 20X), 300and 400 may include acts not described above, may not include all of theacts described above, and/or may include acts described above beingperformed in a different sequence than that which is described above.

It should also be appreciated that although many of the foregoingexamples relate to analyzing the operations of a restaurant, theinvention is not limited to being used in this manner. Aspects of theinvention may be employed in analyzing the operations of any suitableentity, employing any suitable resource (whether human or not, andwhether considered an employee according to the law of the applicablejurisdiction(s) or not).

It should further be appreciated that although a single representativesystem 100 (FIG. 1) is described above as being used in a singlerestaurant to provide the functionality described, the invention is notlimited to this mode of implementation. For example, a systemimplemented in accordance with the invention for analyzing restaurantoperations may evaluate data collected in multiple restaurants, ormultiple systems may be used to analyze the operations of a singlerestaurant. Any suitable mode of implementation may be used.

Additionally, it should be appreciated that although examples givenabove with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 relate to using a combination ofquantitative data and qualitative assessments to evaluate employeeperformance, the invention is not limited to doing so. For example, insome embodiments, only qualitative assessments, or only quantitativedata, may be used to evaluate the performance of one or more employees.

As should be apparent from the foregoing description, some aspects ofthe invention may be implemented using a computing system. FIG. 5illustrates an example of a suitable computing system environment 500.The computing system environment 500 shown in FIG. 5 is only one exampleof a computing environment suitable for implementing aspects of theinvention, and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scopeof use or functionality of the invention. Neither should the computingenvironment 500 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirementrelating to any one or combination of components illustrated in theexemplary operating environment 500.

The invention is operational with numerous other general purpose orspecial purpose computing system environments or configurations.Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/orconfigurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include,but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-heldor laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems,set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs,minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environmentsthat include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.

The computing environment may execute computer-executable instructions,such as program modules. Generally, program modules include routines,programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Theinvention may also be practiced in distributed computing environmentswhere tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linkedthrough a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotecomputer storage media including memory storage devices.

With reference to FIG. 5, an example system for implementing theinvention includes a general purpose computing device in the form of acomputer 510. Components of computer 510 may include, but are notlimited to, a processing unit 520, a system memory 530, and a system bus521 that couples various system components including the system memoryto the processing unit 520. The system bus 521 may be any of severaltypes of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, aperipheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of busarchitectures. By way of example, and not limitation, such architecturesinclude Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro ChannelArchitecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video ElectronicsStandards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (PCI) bus also known as Mezzanine bus.

Computer 510 typically includes a variety of computer readable media.Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessedby computer 510 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media,removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and notlimitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage mediaand communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatileand nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in anymethod or technology for storage of information such as computerreadable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data.Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM,EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital videodisks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetictape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or anyother medium which can be used to store the desired information andwhich can accessed by computer 510. Communication media typicallyembodies computer readable instructions, data structures, programmodules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier waveor other transport mechanism and includes any information deliverymedia. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one ormore of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encodeinformation in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation,communication media includes wired media such as a wired network ordirect-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF,infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of the any of the aboveshould also be included within the scope of computer readable media.

The system memory 530 includes computer storage media in the form ofvolatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 531and random access memory (RAM) 532. A basic input/output system 533(BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween elements within computer 510, such as during start-up, istypically stored in ROM 531. RAM 532 typically contains data and/orprogram modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presentlybeing operated on by processing unit 520. By way of example, and notlimitation, FIG. 5 illustrates operating system 534, applicationprograms 535, other program modules 536, and program data 537.

The computer 510 may also include other removable/non-removable,volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,FIG. 5 illustrates a hard disk drive 541 that reads from or writes tonon-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 551that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 552,and an optical disk drive 555 that reads from or writes to a removable,nonvolatile optical disk 556 such as a CD ROM or other optical media.Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storagemedia that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include,but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards,digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solidstate ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive 541 is typically connectedto the system bus 521 through an non-removable memory interface such asinterface 540, and magnetic disk drive 551 and optical disk drive 555are typically connected to the system bus 521 by a removable memoryinterface, such as interface 550.

The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed aboveand illustrated in FIG. 5, provide storage of computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thecomputer 510. In FIG. 5, for example, hard disk drive 541 is illustratedas storing operating system 544, application programs 545, other programmodules 546, and program data 547. Note that these components can eitherbe the same as or different from operating system 534, applicationprograms 535, other program modules 536, and program data 537. Operatingsystem 544, application programs 545, other program modules 546, andprogram data 547 are given different numbers here to illustrate that, ata minimum, they are different copies. A user may enter commands andinformation into the computer 510 through input devices such as akeyboard 562 and pointing device 561, commonly referred to as a mouse,trackball or touch pad. Other input devices (not shown) may include amicrophone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like.These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit520 through a user input interface 560 that is coupled to the systembus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such asa parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor591 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus521 via an interface, such as a video interface 590. In addition to themonitor, computers may also include other peripheral output devices suchas speakers 597 and printer 596, which may be connected through a outputperipheral interface 595.

The computer 510 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer580. The remote computer 580 may be a personal computer, a server, arouter, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, andtypically includes many or all of the elements described above relativeto the computer 510, although only a memory storage device 581 has beenillustrated in FIG. 5. The logical connections depicted in FIG. 5include a local area network (LAN) 571 and a wide area network (WAN)573, but may also include other networks. Such networking environmentsare commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranetsand the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 510 is connectedto the LAN 571 through a network interface or adapter 570. When used ina WAN networking environment, the computer 510 typically includes amodem 572 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN573, such as the Internet. The modem 572, which may be internal orexternal, may be connected to the system bus 521 via the user inputinterface 560, or other appropriate mechanism. In a networkedenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 510, orportions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. Byway of example, and not limitation, FIG. 5 illustrates remoteapplication programs 585 as residing on memory device 581. It will beappreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and othermeans of establishing a communications link between the computers may beused.

Having thus described several aspects of at least one embodiment of thisinvention, it is to be appreciated that various alterations,modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled inthe art.

Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to bepart of this disclosure, and are intended to be within the spirit andscope of the invention. Further, though advantages of the presentinvention are indicated, it should be appreciated that not everyembodiment of the invention will include every described advantage. Someembodiments may not implement any features described as advantageousherein and in some instances. Accordingly, the foregoing description anddrawings are by way of example only.

The above-described embodiments of the present invention can beimplemented in any of numerous ways. For example, the embodiments may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof. Whenimplemented in software, the software code can be executed on anysuitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in asingle computer or distributed among multiple computers. Such processorsmay be implemented as integrated circuits, with one or more processorsin an integrated circuit component. Though, a processor may beimplemented using circuitry in any suitable format. 10 o Further, itshould be appreciated that a computer may be embodied in any of a numberof forms, such as a rack-mounted computer, a desktop computer, a laptopcomputer, or a tablet computer. Additionally, a computer may be embeddedin a device not generally regarded as a computer but with suitableprocessing capabilities, including a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), asmart phone or any other suitable portable or fixed electronic device.

Also, a computer may have one or more input and output devices. Thesedevices can be used, among other things, to present a user interface.Examples of output devices that can be used to provide a user interfaceinclude printers or display screens for visual presentation of outputand speakers or other sound generating devices for audible presentationof output. Examples of input devices that can be used for a userinterface include keyboards, and pointing devices, such as mice, touchpads, and digitizing tablets. As another example, a computer may receiveinput information through speech recognition or in other audible format.

Such computers may be interconnected by one or more networks in anysuitable form, including as a local area network or a wide area network,such as an enterprise network or the Internet. Such networks may bebased on any suitable technology and may operate according to anysuitable protocol and may include wireless networks, wired networks orfiber optic networks.

Also, the various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded assoftware that is executable on one or more processors that employ anyone of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Additionally, suchsoftware may be written using any of a number of suitable programminglanguages and/or programming or scripting tools, and also may becompiled as executable machine language code or intermediate code thatis executed on a framework or virtual machine.

In this respect, the invention may be embodied as a computer readablestorage medium (or multiple computer readable media) (e.g., a computermemory, one or more floppy discs, compact discs (CD), optical discs,digital video disks (DVD), magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuitconfigurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductordevices, or other tangible computer storage medium) encoded with one ormore programs that, when executed on one or more computers or otherprocessors, perform methods that implement the various embodiments ofthe invention discussed above. As is apparent from the foregoing toexamples, a computer readable storage medium may retain information fora sufficient time to provide computer-executable instructions in anon-transitory form. Such a computer readable storage medium or mediacan be transportable, such that the program or programs stored thereoncan be loaded onto one or more different computers or other processorsto implement various aspects of the present invention as discussedabove. As used herein, the term “computer-readable storage medium”encompasses only a computer-readable medium that can be considered to bea manufacture (i.e., article of manufacture) or a machine. Alternativelyor additionally, the invention may be embodied as a computer readablemedium other than a computer-readable storage medium, such as apropagating signal.

The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense torefer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executableinstructions that can be employed to program a computer or otherprocessor to implement various aspects of the present invention asdiscussed above. Additionally, it should be appreciated that accordingto one aspect of this embodiment, one or more computer programs thatwhen executed perform methods of the present invention need not resideon a single computer or processor, but may be distributed in a modularfashion amongst a number of different computers or processors toimplement various aspects of the present invention.

Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as programmodules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally,program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, datastructures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Typically the functionality of the program modulesmay be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in anysuitable form. For simplicity of illustration, data structures may beshown to have fields that are related through location in the datastructure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigningstorage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium thatconveys relationship between the fields. However, any suitable mechanismmay be used to establish a relationship between information in fields ofa data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags or othermechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.

Various aspects of the present invention may be used alone, incombination, or in a variety of arrangements not specifically discussedin the embodiments described in the foregoing and is therefore notlimited in its application to the details and arrangement of componentsset forth in the foregoing description or illustrated in the drawings.For example, aspects described in one embodiment may be combined in anymanner with aspects described in other embodiments.

Also, the invention may be embodied as a method, of which an example hasbeen provided. The acts performed as part of the method may be orderedin any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments may be constructed inwhich acts are performed in an order different than illustrated, whichmay include performing some acts simultaneously, even though shown assequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

Use of ordinal terms such as “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., in theclaims to modify a claim element does not by itself connote anypriority, precedence, or order of one claim element over another or thetemporal order in which acts of a method are performed, but are usedmerely as labels to distinguish one claim element having a certain namefrom another element having a same name (but for use of the ordinalterm) to distinguish the claim elements.

Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of“including,” “comprising,” or “having.” “containing,” “involving,” andvariations thereof herein, is meant to encompass the items listedthereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for use in a system comprising at leastone employee location data source and at least one recording deviceconfigured to capture video recordings of occurrences in a restaurant,the method comprising acts of: (A) determining, based at least in parton data from the at least one employee location data source, that anemployee of the restaurant vacated a station in the restaurant to whichthe employee is assigned during a particular time period; (B)determining whether the employee improperly vacated the station based atleast in part on an analysis of a video recording captured by the atleast one recording device, the analysis relating to identifying whetherone or more predefined conditions existed in the restaurant at a timewhen the employee vacated the station; (C) if it is determined that theemployee improperly vacated the station, causing the employee to beredirected back to the station, wherein causing the employee to beredirected back to the station comprises at least one of sending anelectronic notification to a device operated by the employee, sending anelectronic notification to a device operated by a supervisor associatedwith the employee, and ceasing to present tasks on a monitor at alocation in the restaurant to which the employee has moved.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the at least one employee location datasource comprises a radio frequency identification (RFID) readerconfigured to receive signal from an RFID tag transported by theemployee.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the RFID reader is deployedat or near the station to which the employee is assigned during theparticular time period.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at leastone employee location data source comprises at least one location-awaredevice of a location-based service configured for geofencing.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the at least one employee location datasource comprises at least one workstation to which employees log on toperform work.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the video depicting therestaurant during the particular time period depicts the employee. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein the video depicting the restaurant duringthe particular time period depicts one or more cashier stations at whichcustomers queue.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the video depictingthe restaurant during the particular time period depicts a foodpreparation area in which multiple employees prepare food.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein the act (A) comprises determining that the employeeimproperly vacated the station based at least in part on data collectedby at least one operational data system at or near the station.
 10. Themethod of claim 9, wherein the at least one operational data systemcomprises a cashier workstation configured to receive input describingcustomer orders.
 11. At least one computer-readable storage mediumhaving instructions recorded thereon which, when executed in a systemcomprising at least one employee location data source and at least onerecording device configured to capture video recordings of occurrencesin a restaurant, cause the system to perform a method comprising actsof: (A) determining, based at least in part on data from the at leastone employee location data source, that an employee of the restaurantvacated a station in the restaurant to which the employee is assignedduring a particular time period; (B) determining whether the employeeimproperly vacated the station based at least in part on an analysis ofa video recording captured by the at least one recording device, theanalysis relating to identifying whether one or more predefinedconditions existed in the restaurant at a time when the employee vacatedthe station; (C) if it is determined that the employee improperlyvacated the station, causing the employee to be redirected back to thestation, wherein causing the employee to be redirected back to thestation comprises at least one of sending an electronic notification toa device operated by the employee, sending an electronic notification toa device operated by a supervisor associated with the employee, andceasing to present tasks on a monitor at a location in the restaurant towhich the employee has moved.
 12. The at least one computer-readablestorage medium of claim 11, wherein the system comprises at least oneoperational data system at or near the station, and wherein the act (A)comprises determining that the employee improperly vacated the stationbased at least in part on data collected by the at least one operationaldata system.